Illusion Pearls ® painting and kustom Paint

Illusion Pearls are made from transparent Mica Particles (like glass) that reflect one color, while letting you see the color underneath. In shade, they have no reflectivity, but in sun, they can have a wide array of different reflective properties.

Creating Ghost Pearl paint is as easy as doing any other type of paint, with the exception of adding a few steps to the process. When we describe Illusion Pearls on our site, we are speaking of the type of pearlescent pigments that can be used to create ghost flames, entire iridescent pearl paint jobs, or other ghost effects. Our Illusion Pearls are what kustom painters use to create those beautiful pearlescent effects that people see on many kustom paint and even factory paint jobs. Newer cars and motorcycles can be seen with ghost pearl effects done in the factory, such as the Lamborghini orange paint with the beautiful gold pearl that we see at the auto shows, or simpler pearlescent white paints that we see on new Cadillacs or Infiniti cars, which can be achieved with a simple silver ghost pearl or gold ghost pearl applied over a white base coat. Turning a two-stage paint job into a three-stage paint job is the basic step in creating a quality pearl paint.

With this thought in mind, anyone can make an ordinary paint job into a pearl paint job. Instead of doing a base-coat clear-coat paint job, we add the pearl paint into the middle of the mix. Base-coat, ghost pearl paint, clear-coat. We always recommend that people make their own mixes and spray a test panel before doing the entire project, and it is always wise to use a base clear, or a binder to mix the pearls with before adding the final clears. The final clear step is only recommended for kustom paint, and not for powder coating, gel coating, or faux finish. If you are looking to do a project using these beautiful Illusion Pearls, we have a few suggestions on which colors look good over which base coats…

White base coat: Use any of the Illusion Pearls, but keep in mind that the red ghost pearl will give you a iridescent pink look in the sun. Blue, violet, orange, gold and silver are the most popular colors for white base coats.

Black base coat: You also may use any of the Illusion Pearls, but keep in mind that using too much will make the project take on the color of the pearl and overwhelm the black. To get a cool midnight color change effect, keep the ratio of pearl down to about a level teaspoon per quart in the clear base or binder. In powder coating, keep the ratio down to a tablespoon per pound and add onto that as needed.

Red, Burgundy, or Orange base coat: We highly recommend any of our Gold Illusion Pearls, including the shimmer gold or the satin gold. Also, Blue pearl red pearl, and violet pearls can make for great effects over the darker shades of red.

Blue base coats: For very light blues (like cornflower blue), we have seen excellent results using green ghost pearl, but for a cool Kolorshift on any shades of blue, a violet ghost pearl will give you a cool purple Kolorshift in the sun. Silver ghost pearl paint can also give a nice subtle effect to the darker blues. Green can give an awsome pearl effect over most blue bases as well.

Yellow base coat: We highly recommend that you try using green ghost pearl for the lemony yellows, and gold ghost pearl for the darker racing yellows.

Green base coat: Gold ghost pearl looks great on green base coats. We have also seen good results with orange and red Illusion Pearls.

Pink base coat: Believe it or not, you will find that silver ghost pearl looks awesome over pink, as does the red ghost pearl.